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Extrude, offset and sweep

Extrude

Section titled “Extrude”

Extrude (P) pulls a flat face out into a solid, or pushes it in to make a recess.

  1. Click a face.
  2. Move the pointer to preview the new shape.
  3. Click again to finish.

You can also press on a face, drag and release. To set the distance exactly, type it and press Enter. Positive distances extrude in the direction the face points; negative distances push into it. Hold Shift to keep the current snapped distance while you move the pointer.

Extrude works on faces with holes and on concave faces. If you push a face all the way to a parallel face on the other side, Extrude cuts an opening through.

Extrude reports an error and leaves the model unchanged when the result would partly collide with other geometry.

Offset

Section titled “Offset”

Offset (F) draws a copy of a face’s outline a set distance inside or outside it. It’s useful for window frames, borders and walls.

  1. Click a face.
  2. Move inward or outward.
  3. Click to finish.

You can also select two or more connected edges that lie in one plane, then offset them instead of a whole face.

Type a distance and press Enter to set it exactly. You can keep typing new distances until you do something else, and they don’t add undo steps. Double-click a face to repeat the last offset on it.

Where the offset outline would overlap itself, Modlumi removes the overlap. Hold Alt (Command on macOS) while previewing to keep it.

Sweep

Section titled “Sweep”

Sweep moves a profile face along a path of edges to create a shape, such as a molding along a wall, a pipe along a bend, or a bowl turned around a circle.

To sweep along edges you choose:

  1. Select the path edges.
  2. Choose Sweep in the toolbar.
  3. Click the profile face.

To trace the path as you go:

  1. Choose Sweep with nothing selected.
  2. Click the profile face.
  3. Move the pointer along the path edges. The traced path is shown in red. Move back, or press Backspace, to shorten it.
  4. Click or press Enter to finish.

The sweep starts at the end of the path nearest the profile. A circular path around an axis makes a turned shape, such as a bowl, spindle or sphere.

If the path borders a flat sheet, Sweep keeps the parts outside the swept shape. This works for partial paths too. Covered parts join the new shape, and sheet regions inside the resulting volume are removed.

Sweep rejects paths that turn back on themselves, profiles that cross the inside of a bend, and results that wouldn’t form a clean surface.